TSA Agent: We’re not safe

by Wilson

Monday, Mar 11, 2013 at 4:49 PM EST

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An expose on the TSA confirms what we already knew instinctively: we are not safe. When the supervisors are most concerned about whether or not their screeners are chewing gum (a big no no apparently) you know we’ve got issues. Not only that but felons are getting jobs at the TSA. Brilliant.

GLENN: All right. Let me go to the story up on TheBlaze. A former Newark TSA agent tells us the obvious: We’re not safe. If you’ve ever flown in or out of Newark, New Jersey, you know that. This is not going to come as a shock to you. But if you’ve never been to Newark, hey, congratulations on that. That’s a very good thing. But if you’ve never been to Newark, I swear to you I have been where the person, they check your driver’s license and this even they don’t even look up to match your face on the license. They don’t do it. They never look up.

PAT: You’ll put the bag through the machine and nobody even looks at the monitor. Nobody’s even looking at it.

GLENN: Okay, so ‑‑

PAT: They are talking to each other.

GLENN: This is an expose, the employees, this is from a former TSA employee. There are those employees who could never keep a job in the private sector who are working at the TSA in Newark. I wouldn’t trust them to walk my dog, and these are the people that Janet Napolitano says ‑‑ she constantly says these are the first class, first line of defense in the war on terror. If that’s true, you’re dead if you fly out of Newark, New Jersey. I mean, I almost ‑‑ but I just wanted to get through. I almost had a ‑‑ I almost had a scene because I’m standing at this, you know, check‑in line and I had flown in and out of Newark over and over again and where they check your ID, right behind them is a plate glass window and it looks to the skyline of New York where the World Trade Centers would have been. And so you’re ‑‑ and this woman didn’t even look at my face. And I about snapped. I about snapped. And the guy standing next to me said, don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Because he could feel it coming. And what I wanted to say was, “Turn around for me. Don’t even look at my face. Just turn around and see that place right in the skyline where the buildings should have been? Could you at least look at someone’s face as they’re going through? What is the point of looking at their driver’s license if you’re not matching it with the person who just handed it to you?” But they’re $15 an hour employees. And in Newark, New Jersey, who’s living on $15 an hour?

PAT: Guy tells the story about one screener who didn’t come to work for four weeks. Just didn’t show up for four weeks. When he finally reappeared, he asked for another week off. The answer was no, you just took four weeks off. So what did he do? He took another week off and still didn’t get fire.

GLENN: Well, they can’t replace them.

PAT: They can’t replace them.

GLENN: Who’s going to work there? Do you know how low your self‑esteem would be if you had any ‑‑ you know what one of the big things with the TSA guys, according to this, according with the supervisors, according to a former TSA employee in Newark, one of the big things that drives the employers nuts is gum‑chewing. And so they go and they check the employee: Are you chewing gum? And they had one guy ‑‑ this TSA employee said, “I witnessed the boss coming over and saying, “Open up your mouth. Open it up.” It’s a mint, jack. It’s a mint. “Open it up. I want to see it.” And made him open up and show him that it was a mint and not gum. I mean, that’s what you are worried about: Gum‑chewing? It’s a pretty nasty, pretty nasty look at the bottom of the barrel.

STU: Yeah, Marsha Blackburn, the congresswoman, released a TSA report of the 50 most dangerous officers. I mean, there’s ‑‑ we’re talking offenses like rape, you know ‑‑

GLENN: Oh, this is the one from last week where they were ‑‑

STU: I think this is.

GLENN: Yeah, last week where they’re talking about how they are employing now former criminals.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: Felons. Felons. Not misdemeanors. Felons are getting a job at the TSA. That’s exactly what I want to do. I want to put felons, I want to give them a badge and have them ‑‑ I mean, because they can ‑‑ they are beyond reproach. There’s no way, there’s no way, you know, a bunch of ex‑felons are going to, you know, take money making $15 an hour, take money and let somebody on the plane with something nefarious. No way.

STU: And this is the problem. There’s a lot of good TSA employees and they do a lot of good things but you have people ‑‑ when you have the government or union running these things, you get people who are convicted of child pornography and keep their jobs. Private businesses don’t allow that.

GLENN: Yep.

STU: They get rid of you when you do crap like that. When you steal from passengers, they get rid of you. When you’re through the government, it’s such a process to do that, it becomes completely inefficient and you have lists like the 50 most dangerous officers.

GLENN: Well, you know what? The cities that don’t have ‑‑ do we have a list, Jeffy? Can you stop looking at your cancer screening? Do you have breast cancer?

STU: No.

GLENN: Seriously maybe you have breast cancer.

JEFFY: No, I felt for lumps this morning. I’m good.

GLENN: Did you? Good. Could you look, could you look at the cities that have said we don’t want TSA?

STU: San Francisco’s one of them.

GLENN: San Francisco is one of them.

STU: You know, you’d think of all places San Francisco would love the government intervention but even they have opted out of it. You can opt out.

GLENN: No, no, people who like government intervention are generally those, those people that want government intervention elsewhere but not for them.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: They will accept everybody else, but we’re smart enough to live on our own. Did you hear, if you are ‑‑ if you’re a federal worker or if you have any kind of, you know, retirement plan, if you’re a teacher or a cop or anything else, what’s the one city you want to live in? Because they’re giving I think double the amount to the, actually putting it into the kitty. Everybody else, nobody’s getting ‑‑ they are not putting anything into your kitty now anymore. You’re not getting your healthcare. You’re not getting your retirement benefits, gang. I got news for ya. It doesn’t work. The system doesn’t work. It won’t happen. Because there are too many people on retirement and not enough people coming up. They need like 12‑to‑1 and we’re already down to, like, 8‑to‑1 and another five years it will be down to 4‑to‑1. You just can’t afford all the retirement. And so what they’ve been trying to do is, “Hey, put all this money in for investment because then it will grow.” But nobody’s putting the money in for investment anymore except for one city. And it makes sense: Washington, D.C. If you work in Washington D.C., you have the best chance of getting your retirement. Now, why is that? Well, you want the people in Washington D.C., you want the Feds to be fat and happy. That’s why they make more money, almost double. When you include the benefits, almost double the amount of money that you make is made by a federal worker. Almost double. And it is ‑‑ it’s shockingly horrifying that these are our public servants. But if you’re trying to get somebody who is loyal to the money and will work through anything and will fight the hardest to make sure there’s no cuts, you want the federal workers to be the ones. Keep growing that base fatter and fatter and fatter and make sure the ones who impose all the laws, the ones who really are the ones who enforce it, make sure it’s enforced, make sure they have their retirement covered. Everybody else, you’re on your own.

http://youtu.be/0iRCvDwF26Q Sam Fisher

That is why I will never fly.

Anonymous

How soon are we going to have to contend with TSA/HSA/FEMA checkpoints on our nations highways? Haven’t there been some occurances already?

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4HAW7OERGSC7VZM72V7IGDJ3B4 Sharmane

Disband the whole useless agency, along with “homeland security” which is really just a mechanism to wield power over the citizens. While we’re at it, completely chop off the corrupt BATFE gunrunning operation and shut it down. Way, way too much government and it is not about keeping us safe; it is about control.

One more reason to disband the TSA, Homeland Security and other such means the Fed’s are using to ensure they control our lives.

Draxx

I agree get rid of the Gestapo…

Anonymous

It just sounds like a giant grope fest. If these agents aren’t looking at people’s IDs and don’t really care who gets onto or off of a plane then it becomes pretty clear. They will just spot nice attractive young ladies to “randomly search.” If there are a bunch of perverts participating in the Gropefest ’13, what’s the TSA to do? Fire these people? Good luck, they can’t be replaced.

Draxx

They have more rights to grope and individual than that person’s own doctor has the right to touch them… There is something definitely not right about that!

Anonymous

Yeah like in Virginia how they said that it’s “invasive” to make a woman look at an ultrasound before getting an abortion. Is it invasive to get checkups too?

mspatdev

Another law on Socialism has arrived. Soon people will start driving more then flying. It is Socialist and the Far-Left that wants this government to rule all of us in everything we do. They want the unions to do their dirty work and they want everyone to join the Unions. What happened to free enterprise and for companies to take care of their own employees and not the government? Since Obammy has come on the scene, the whole USA has become a “Nanny Nation”. Capitalism is what our nation is built on, not socialism and radically insane terrorists of the White House.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3DWM3QMXCL5KVQ76JPPC4SPRLM Coach

Now you’re talking my lingo, and I’ve got input on a much higher level. I worked as an FSO at
a major cruise port for several years supervising hundreds of screeners and at various cruise terminals. Prior to that, I worked in both public and private sector law enforcement for over 30 years, taught courses of instruction at Miami and Purdue universities, wrote several manuals and textbooks, and was knighted as a Grand Knight of Justice … so believe me when I tell you that I know of what I speak.

When TSA was formed under the Bush administration, every effort was made to hire competent people for the job of protecting our country. However, Bush had to deal with a Democratic Congress and Senate, who in turn demanded affirmative action … so minorities were given special preference. But, if they were unable to pass the entrance exam and screener’s test, which most could not pass, they were disqualified. However, all of this changed when Obama took office and a directive went out to TSA demanding the hiring of blacks, Hispanics, and yes, Muslims. These people are not only dumb as a box of rocks, many are anti-American.

What’s worse, these village idiots are paid top dollar for their time … averaging $45,000.00 to $60,000.00 per year … and there’s nothing we could do about it because once hired they cannot be fired. Believe it!

A friend of mine tried to get a job working for TSA. Like me, he was a former police chief and security administrator with decades of experience and a Masters Degree in Criminal Justice. He called after taking the written exam, told me it was a piece of cake and that he had aced the test, and then called two weeks later to tell me that he had received a letter saying that he had failed the test. Incredible! I then asked another friend of mine with similar experience to give it a try, and a month later he was also informed that he had failed the test. A couple of weeks later I suggested to one of my Port screeners, a young black female with less than six months experience, that she should apply at TSA to earn a bigger paycheck … and of course she passed with flying colors.

Bottom line: TSA is absolutely worthless as a front-line defense against terrorism. The officers are poorly trained, poorly supervised, and grossly overpaid for the job they do. In fact, whenever a bus load of passengers arrived direct from the airport to embark on a cruise, it was not unusual (actually commonplace) for my officers to find all kinds of contraband and weapons in their baggage … luggage that had been transferred directly from the plane to the bus and then through our scanners.

And of course there isn’t a day that goes by that they aren’t breaking the same laws they’re supposed to enforce … i.e., they keep confiscated toiletries, liquor, children’s toys, and any other personal items of value, and they either trade or pawn the confiscated knives.

Our country can be better protected by private sector personnel at a much lower cost and with fewer hassles and complaints. And they’re better trained!

J Pierceall

Seems this is news story of “a bomb got through” is nothing more than a publicity stunt. What better way of scaring the populace into giving TSA more money?

landofaahs

Stop lying commerical, that will end all that crap real quick. Israel does not have that problem. If people are prescreened and properly identified you can reduce the lines considerably and reduce the molestation of citizens. However, some folks will see that as discrimination.